House Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday the Senate plans to vote next week on a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare following the Thursday release of the legislative details, and a price tag provided by the Congressional Budget Office.
“I expect to have a discussion draft on Thursday,” said McConnell, R-Ky. “And we’ll go to the bill obviously once we get a CBO score. Likely next week.”
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McConnell said Republican lawmakers are wrapping up “intense discussions” about how to write the bill. Vice President Pence and Health and Human Service Secretary Tom Price met privately with Republican senators at their daily lunch on Tuesday.
Republicans are eager to wrap up consideration of a healthcare reform bill by the August recess so that they can dedicate the fall session to tax reform.
The Senate version is not going to replicate a House-passed bill, which means if the Senate can pass it, lawmakers would have to negotiate a compromise that can pass both chambers.
Republicans continued private talks on healthcare reform as Democrats protested their exclusion from the discussions and lack of public hearings on the legislation. But Republicans say Democrats have shown no interest in negotiating.
“They are not interested in what we are trying to achieve at all,” McConnell said.
McConnell pointed out Senate Democrats in 2009 wrote much of Obamacare in then-Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office.
McConnell said there will be “plenty of time” to review the GOP bill. “This will be as transparent as it can be,” McConnell said.
